Category Archives: Common Core

“High schools focus on elementary applications of advanced mathematics whereas most people really make more use of sophisticated applications of elementary mathematics. This accounts for much of the disconnect noted above, as well as the common complaint from employers that graduates don’t know any math. Many who master high school mathematics cannot think clearly about percentages or ratios.”

The obsession with Al Gebra and manipulations has used up loads of time which could have been spent on

1. Parameters.
The sudden appearance of the word “parameter” in High School :“Interpret expressions for functions in terms of the situation they model. 5. Interpret the parameters in a linear or exponential function in terms of a context.”
The idea of a parameter is basic to the study of functions and relationships. At the start the equation y = mx + b has four letters in it. x and y are variables. What on earth are m and b? Numbers? Fixed numbers? Variable numbers, but not as variable as variables? No, they are parameters for the line. For a given line they are fixed, but for different lines one or both are different.
(When I was at school we, that is the kids, used to call them “variable constants”)

2. Parametric representation of curves and relationships.
For example a circle. With parameter θ a point (x,y) on the unit circle is described by x = cos(θ), y = sin(θ)
and a parabola, parameter a, point on curve given by x = a, y = a2
and for a lot of curves the only neat way.
It also allows for ease in programming graphics of curves.

3. Polar coordinates. The ONLY mention of the word “polar” is with regard to representation of complex numbers. With no way of simple plotting them ?????
How about the function representation of a circle as r = 2 ??

There are others!

It was admitted at the time of development of the CCSSM that too much time was spent on K-8, and HS math was a rough job – so why can it not be modified ???????

Arithmetic is the art of processing numbers.
We have ADD, SUBTRACT, MULTPLY and DIVIDE
In ordinary language these words are verbs which have a direct object and an indirect object.

“Add the OIL to the EGG YOLKS one drop at a time”.
“To find the net return subtract the COSTS from the GROSS INCOME”.

In math things have got confused.
We can say “add 3 to 4″or we can say “add 3 and 4”.
We can say “multiply 3 by 4” or we can say “multiply 3 and 4”.
At least we don’t have that choice with subtract or divide.

The direct + indirect form actually means something with the words used,
but when I see “add 3 and 4” my little brain says “add to what?”.

There are perfectly good ways of saying “add, or multiply, 3 and 4” which do not force meanings and usages onto words that never asked for them.
“Find the sum of 3 and 4” and “Find the product of 3 and 4” are using the correct mathematical words, which have moved on from “add” and “multiply”, and incorporate the two commutative laws.

If we were to view operations with numbers as actions, so that an operation such as “add” has a number attached to it, eg “add 7”, then meaningful arithmetical statements can be made, like

“start with 3 and then add 5 and then add 8 and then subtract 4 and then add 1”

which with the introduction of the symbols “+” and “-“, used as in the statement above allows the symbolic expression 3+5+8-4+1 to have a completely unambiguous meaning. It uses the “evaluate from left to right” convention of algebra, and does not rely on any notion of “binary operation” or “properties of operations”.

If we want to view “+” as a binary operation, with two inputs then, yes, we can ascribe meaning to “3+4”, but not in horrors such as the following (found in the CCSSM document):

To add 2 + 6 + 4, the second two numbers can be added to make a ten,
so 2 + 6 + 4 = 2 + 10 = 12. (Associative property of addition.)

If + is a binary operation, which are the two inputs for the first occurrence of + and which are the inputs for the second occurrence of + ?
The combination of symbols 2 + 6 + 4 has NO MEANING in the world of binary operations.

See A. N. Whitehead in “Introduction to Mathematics” 1911.
here are the relevant pages:

And here are two more delights from the CCSSM document
subtract 10 – 8
add 3/10 + 4/100 = 34/100

In addition I would happily replace the term “algebraic thinking” in grades 1-5 by”muddled thinking”.

It is used to discriminate between equations with real roots and equations without real roots.

So WHY isn’t it in the Common Core math standards. It’s about as standard a thing as is possible?

Clearly the CCSSM authors are guilty of serious discrimination in discriminating against the word “discriminant”, in order not to be accused of discrimination language. Neither “discrimination” nor “discriminant” appear in the CCSSM doc, and the result is that the poor kids ( in the little darlings sense) have to complete the square from scratch every time they have a quadratic equation ( instead of once only in order to get the discriminant formula).